


barely human

by sam_kom_trashkru



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The 100 (TV)
Genre: Agents of Shield AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Powers, F/F, F/M, aro/ace Monty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 08:05:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6649291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sam_kom_trashkru/pseuds/sam_kom_trashkru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How a team of extraordinary people manages to take down the Mountain.</p><p>or</p><p>The Agents of SHIELD au that literally nobody asked for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	barely human

**Author's Note:**

> This was a monster and the idea was floating around in my head for a while so I had to write it.

White, searing pain was the only thing she experienced. 

She could feel the needles, punctured into her skin haphazardly, sucking out blood and pumping her full of sedatives. The tubes running down her nose and throat stung like all hell, but they were the only things keeping her breathing enclosed in this liquid filled tube. She could feel the small blades, making precise incisions, feel her body being poked and prodded and studied. It burned, it hurt. 

She wanted to close her eyes.  _ Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. _

* * *

 

“Well well well, look what the cat dragged in.” The brunette scowled good naturedly, jutting her chin out as if in challenge, as she walked elegantly into the large aircraft, which had been fondly dubbed  _ the Ark  _ by its inhabitants. “If it isn’t the  _ Commander _ , back from the big leagues.”

“ _ Shof op _ , Anya,” Lexa snapped, a smile on her face, easily reverting to the language the two of them had created, then taught to their team, in order to keep secrets secrets. “I was only gone four months.”

“And it was four months too many,” Anya laughed, dropping her usually stoic demeanor around the girl who had grown to become her little sister, the same girl she’d handpicked from the Academy to train and take under her wing, “you left me with the rest of the idiots, here. Without you, their antics were completely unbearable.”

“Are you complaining about us again, Anya?” The smile on Lexa’s face widened more when she heard the light-hearted tone of her favorite scientists. She turned, only to have an armful of genius, sinking into Monty’s signature hugs. There was something about the Korean agent that always made Lexa feel safe, and loved. Other than Anya, her closest bond on the team was with him, because Monty Green was like a breath of fresh air in the stifling environment of government espionage agencies, so genuine and trusting and  _ good  _ compared to most of the people Lexa encountered on a daily basis.

“Hello to you, too, Monty,” she said with a grin as he pulled away, “where’s your other half?” Wherever Monty was, his best friend and partner-in-crime, Jasper Jordan, was never far behind. True to her sentiments, the floppy haired, goggle-wearing boy appeared moments later, still munching on slices of chocolate cake, too caught up in his food to notice the girl in front of him. When he  _ did  _ notice Lexa, he waved happily, but his mouth was too full of chocolate to say anything. 

“Welcome back, Agent Woods.” Marcus Kane was a peaceful man, a visionary. His eyes were crinkled and warm, and his entire aura screamed  _ father _ , and that’s what he was to his team. A father. They were all his kids, regardless of how often they annoyed him.

“Kane,” she responded with a respectful nod, “where are the others?”

“Blake Jr. is in the gym with Forrest, Blake Sr. is filling out some paperwork, I've no doubt they'll greet you later. For now, I'll let you settle in, I have a conference with Coulson in ten.” He left the room after clasping a hand on her shoulder comfortingly, strolling leisurely away. 

“So?” She turned to Anya, who was gazing at her expectantly as the older agent took one of Lexa’s bags for her, walking in the direction of Lexa’s room. “What was it like? Training with some of Coulson’s own?” 

“Yeah!” Monty piped up. “Daisy Johnson is like, a  _ legendary _ hacker, I'd love to learn a few of her tricks! I can only imagine how awesome she must be in real life.”

“And hot,” Jasper added wistfully, to which Monty promptly smacked him on the back of the head for. 

“I was pretty starstruck at first,” Lexa admitted with a shrug, “but when it came down to it, they were just normal people. Well, normal  _ inhumans _ , at least. Daisy and Lincoln’s guidance is invaluable, I'm sure, and I've got confidence in my abilities now, which wasn't something I could say before.”

“So that means you’ll show us?” Jasper grinned excitedly, expression souring when Lexa laughed and shook her head. 

“Not on the Ark, boys, not on the Ark.”

There was some good-natured pouting at her proclamation, but it was logical. Lexa didn’t want to risk messing anything up on their beloved plane just because her powers got a little out of control. 

“There’s the lady of the hour.” Lexa narrowed her eyes at the teasing tone in the deep voice that resonated in her ears, turning to observe perhaps her  _ least  _ favorite team member, Bellamy Blake. 

While she was sure that the two of them would get along given time, Lexa was nothing if not stubborn, and it was hard to forget years of rivalry at the Academy and suddenly befriend this young man. The two of them had competed over  _ everything _ , including perhaps the sorest part of their relationship: Costia. 

The young woman had been Lexa’s first love, and she had adored her with every fibre of her being. In the beginning, Bellamy had only attempted to pursue the dark skinned, curly haired student in order to get under Lexa’s skin, but soon found himself charmed by her likable personality, and started going after her in earnest. After about six months of being in a relationship with Lexa, Costia began cheating on the brunette with the freckled, tanned young man, assuring him that the two of them had broken up, but in the end, she had played the both of him. As it turned out, Costia had been in a long-distance relationship with an agent named Nia long before she met either of them, but her name still caused a lot of hostility, so Costia was a blacklisted subject in conversations if Marcus didn’t want two of his best agents trying to kill one another. 

“Blake,” Lexa responded curtly, and he shook his head at her.

“As professional as always I see, Woods.”

“One of us has to be,” Lexa shot back, and Bellamy threw his hands up in surrender immediately, a wounded expression on his face. 

“Are you implying that I’m unprofessional?”

“Well,” Anya cut in, “you  _ do  _ have a nasty habit of sleeping with people we’ve been assigned to protect.” A faint whine of protest sounded in the back of Bellamy’s throat, but he shrugged, because it was true.

“Well, Pine, you’ve got me there.”

“Has my brother stuck his foot in his mouth again?” Octavia Blake, Lexa learned, was  _ very  _ different from her brother. Sure, they shared the same nasty competitive streak, but Octavia was a genuinely kind girl, as opposed to Bellamy, who tried to hide behind his bravado and ‘badassery’. Part of the reason Octavia was so well-balanced was her relationship with Lincoln, her SO, in both the sense of a supervising officer and significant other. Marcus turned a blind eye to the “no relationships” policy when it came to the two of them merely because they worked so well together, and Lincoln’s peaceful nature tapered the hot-headedness of Anya, Lexa, Bellamy, and Octavia. 

“When  _ isn’t  _ his foot in his mouth?”

“Valid point, Lex, valid point.”

Bellamy left eventually, muttering under his breath about being ganged up on, but the amusement shining in his eyes let Lexa know that he hadn’t lost his sense of humor. She could hear Jasper choking on a piece of cake, having been dared by Octavia to try and eat it as quickly as possible, and felt herself relax. 

It was good to be back.

* * *

 

Everything was foggy, and the only thing she could fully recognize was the pain.

She couldn’t tell if she was awake or dreaming, but the voices floating through her head seemed much too far away, and were very distorted. 

“This one’s strong.”

“Most of the others don’t survive the first stages of testing.”

“It’s a shame she had to be one of those freaks, her mother saw potential in the girl.”

“At least she’s still useful.”

“I don’t know why we bother to keep them alive, those freaks are better off dead anyways.” 

_ Freaks.  _

That one word in particular triggered something within her, stirring up a fire that she’d thought to have died out long ago. Unconsciously, she could feel herself thrashing and struggling against her bonds, heart rate picking up as she began panicking. She could hear the voices yelling in concern.

“Up the sedatives!”

Blackness once more consumed her as one of the needles began pumping foreign substances into her body, and she let herself fall into the oblivion of darkness. 

_ Help me. _

* * *

 

The jovial mood of the team sobered as soon as Marcus entered the communal living space, expression heavy and posture slumped. Obviously, his call with Coulson hadn’t gone well.

“Sir?” Lexa breeched tentatively. 

“We’ve been entrusted with a highly sensitive case,” he said, rubbing at his eyes tiredly, “I’m going to need all of you to be on top form for this one, and no squabbling. Woods, I hope that your training is going to pay off, because I can’t have you losing control on this one.”

“Sir, I’m one of the most composed members of this team,” Lexa said with pursed lips, “Why are you concerned about me losing my cool? It hasn’t happened before.”

“We’ve gotten a tip about the Hydra operations inside of a base known as Mount Weather. They’ve been capturing inhumans.” Lexa felt her blood freeze. “Dissecting and experimenting on them in order to see what makes them tick. 

“How do we know that the tip is valid?” Anya asked immediately.

“It came from one of Hydra’s own, a highly ranked doctor and scientist.”

“And how do we know that this isn’t a trap?” Bellamy argued. 

“We don’t,” Marcus answered simply, “but I’m inclined to believe Coulson when he says that this is legit, because the woman who gave us the tip has a daughter being experimented on, and she’s hellbent on getting her back.”

* * *

 

Raven Reyes was  _ not  _ having a good day. 

It had started off decently enough, she’d gotten breakfast burritos from her favorite shop on the corner, and they’d given her  _ extra  _ salsa without her asking, and she’d managed to not spill her coffee like she usually did. On the long drive to the research facilities at Mt. Weather, she’d heard not one, not two, but  _ four  _ different songs from T-swizzle, and had been able to have a nice jam session by herself in her car. The pain meds Abby prescribed were working wonders for her leg, and she made a mental note to thank the doctor for them. 

As soon as she reached the facilities, Abby pulled her to the side and into her personal office, where Raven quickly noticed that the security cameras were disabled. 

“What’s up, doc?” Though she was genuinely alarmed by the doctor’s suspicious behavior, Raven couldn’t help but applaud herself on the unintentional Loony Toons reference, as that cartoon had been one of her favorites growing up, but was quickly brought back to reality by Abby’s low, rapid words. 

“I need you to do me a favor.”

“Name it and you’ve got it, doc,” Raven assured, though there was hesitation in her voice, “you saved my leg from being  _ totally  _ useless, so I owe you. As long as it’s nothing  _ too  _ crazy, ya feel?”

“I need you to help SHIELD agents break out the patients in Ward 47.”

Several long moments passed, and Raven blinked owlishly at the older woman a few times. 

“I’m sorry,” Raven said slowly, a frown tugging at her lips, “could you repeat that? I could’ve sworn you just asked me to lend a helping hand to the organization that  _ killed _ the  _ love of my life _ .” Her voice begins to raise, and Abby frantically shushes her, shaking her head. 

“Raven, please,” she pleaded, “you’re my only hope. And SHIELD didn’t kill Finn Collins.” Raven barked out a sharp laugh, backing away slightly, eyes narrowed. 

“What sort of drugs are you on, Griff?” she scowled. “I  _ know _ that SHIELD killed Finn. I read the files, watched the tapes —”

“That’s just what they want you to think,” Abby breaks in, eyes pleading, “John Pike. Look him up in SHIELD’s archives once you’re with them, you’ll see.”

“Why should I trust you on this?” Raven challenged.

“Because he killed Jake, too,” Abby nearly sobbed, stopping for a moment to regain her composure. Raven reeled as though she’d been struck. Jake Griffin had been her mentor alongside Sinclair throughout her training in HYDRA, and she had adored him like the father she’d never had. His death had been painted like an accident, an explosion, but the very notion that there was foul play involved. “—and  _ Clarke’s _ in there.” 

In that moment, everything made sense.

Clarke Griffin meant the world to her mother, and Raven knew that Abby would do  _ anything _ to keep her daughter safe. 

“Alright. Tell me what to do.”

This was how, six short hours later, Raven found herself waiting antsily at one of the secret entrances to Mt. Weather, known only to the engineers of the building, a quick escape from their labs should something blow up. The quinjet landed quietly, utilizing the latest in cloaking technology developed by Leo Fitz, a SHIELD agent that Raven had always grudgingly looked up to, because he was the best at what he did, but on the opposite side. 

Or so she thought. 

Apparently, Hydra had killed her boyfriend, not SHIELD, so her allegiances were rather on the fence. Right now, she just wanted answers and some carnitas. Or carne asada fries. Either worked, really. 

Her first thoughts when the team exited the quinjet were  _ hot diggity damn,  _ because honestly how was it fair that that many attractive people were all on the  _ same team? _ They had all probably been models in their past lives, though the one with black warpaint smudged across her face looked really intimidating, and it took Raven a few moments to put a name to the face.

“The infamous Commander,” she said, mostly to herself, but the others overheard her, “Bossman’s been trying to snag you for a while now, and I can see why.” If looks could kill, Raven would already be dead from the glares immediately shot in her direction from the Commander and the taller woman, but it would have been a happy death, surrounded by gods and goddesses. 

Damn she needed to get laid. 

“You must be Raven,” the dark haired girl with intricate braids weaved into them piped up, seemingly oblivious to the glaring coming from her two team members, “I’m Octavia, Kane told us to expect you.”

“That’s my name,” Raven responded with a faux salute, “Raven Reyes, apparent traitor to Hydra, at your service.” This garnered a chuckle from Octavia and the man who looked too similar to her for them to not be siblings, as well as a small smile from the darker skinned man who stood protectively behind her. 

“I like her,” Octavia said with a grin, turning to the others, “can we keep her, Anya?” The taller girl, who’s name was apparently Anya, rolled her eyes.

“We’ll discuss it later, O, for now,” she turned back to Raven. “What’s the plan?”

Raven spread out the map of the mountain, pointing her fingers to the entrance they were at currently. “So we’re here, and we need to make it all the way to this point while evading capture...” The group of SHIELD agents listened attentively as she outlined the plan, nodding in the right spots and asking questions when needed.

“You mentioned a diversion,” Anya said at the end, “what will that be, exactly?” Raven merely smirked. 

“Please. I’m Raven  _ I can make it go boom _ Reyes, I’ve got this in the bag.”

* * *

 

Light blue eyes snapped open at the sound of an explosion, as well as the list dusting of roof that came sprinkling down on his matted brown hair. He tugged tentatively on his shackles, keeping him splayed to the wall, and grumbled when they still refused to budge. 

“The fuck was that?” the chained man lifted his head from its slumped forward position to observe his cell-mate, who had also stirred at the explosion, looking rather worse-for-wear, with red welts from the whips lining his body and bruises coloring his skin. He knew that he didn’t look much better. 

“Sounds like a party,” he chuckled, voice coarse from disuse, “shame we can’t join them.”

“Clarke loved parties,” the other man agreed humorlessly, “she would’ve dragged us along with her.”

Growing up, it had always been the three of them against the rest of the world. Clarke Griffin, John Murphy, and Nathan Miller, the dream team of Hydra legacies. They’d been set for secure futures within the organization, had been brainwashed by their parents and their superiors, but had been forced to undergo a rude awakening after terrigen had been introduced to the atmosphere, and all three of them had undergone the change. Hydra, as it turned out, didn’t care about the family history of those they tortured. 

Now, they were just lab rats waiting for the bliss of death to finally overcome them.

There was a lull in the conversation as the two young men reminisced of their lives before the change, but both were jolted out of their minds when a familiar tune began drifting through their ears. 

“Is that  _ Highway to Hell? _ ” 

“Oh, you hear it too?” Murphy asked, slumping his head back down. “Good, I thought I’d finally gone batshit.”

“You went batshit months ago, bud.”

“Thanks, Miller, love you too.”

This time, their conversation was interrupted with another earth-shaking  _ BOOM _ , as the heavily reinforced door to their confined space was blasted open. 

“ _ See? _ Told you guys I could do i— _ holy fucking shit  _ you two look like—” the mechanic’s words were cut off abruptly as a tall blonde woman walked in and shot a glare in her direction, but Murphy couldn’t help but wheeze out a pitiful laugh at the latina girl’s words. 

“Like we’ve been through hell?” he asked with a small, self-deprecating quirk to his lips, “yeah, that’s because we have. Get him down first, he’s got fresh lashes.” As gently as she could, the blonde woman unlocked the chains supporting Miller to the wall opposite of Murphy, and he slumped against her as soon as he was freed, body too feeble to support himself. At the sight of his best friend, so battered and broken that he couldn’t even  _ stand _ , Murphy was hit by a fresh wave of fury.

And then the blonde had moved over to him, and he could feel the shackles loosening on his wrists and ankles, and the feeling of air on the rubbed raw skin was absolutely  _ heavenly _ . 

“So are you two gonna help us bust out the others or are you useless?” Raven chirped cheerfully from her position at the door, keeping lookout. 

“You would know all about being useless now, wouldn’t you, Reyes,” Murphy snarked as he rubbed at his wrists, ignoring the dull pain in his back from the whipping the day before. 

“Ouch, Murphy, that really hurt.”

“I’ve been told I have a rather  _ stinging _ personality,” he deadpanned, and Miller couldn’t help but bark out a laugh, doubling over at the pain it caused him, doubtlessly the owner of a broken rib. 

“Was that a joke? It wasn't very funny. I don't get it.”

“You’ll see when we get out, Reyes.” There had been a reason that Murphy and Miller were locked in an airtight room with no vents and no way to escape. Miller’s powers had been contained by an electrical field that kept him from shifting, making it too painful, and Murphy had been too far away to send for help. But now? Now they were free. 

“Come on, pals,” Murphy willed when he stepped out of the room, “don't let me down now.” 

“Murphy, what the fuck are you — _ NUH-UH.  _ NOPE. I’M OUTIE. I DON’T FUCK WITH BEES.” A small smirk twisted its way across Murphy’s face as the small buzzing creatures began flooding through the air vents by the thousand. 

“Let’s give ‘em hell boys,” Murphy grinned, nearly laughing at how pale Raven’s face had become once his little winged friends made an appearance. She looked like she was going to be sick. 

“You alright, Reyes?” the blonde asked, looking a little uneasy herself. 

“Just peachy, Anya.” Murphy, however, ignored them.

“You ready, Miller?” 

“What are you talking about, he has broken ribs, he can barely walk?” Anya shot back, looking at Murphy as though he was crazy. 

“I don’t need to walk to help,” Miller quipped, nodding at Murphy, “whenever you are, John.”

“Y’know, I won’t feel bad beating the shit out of you even in the state you’re in, so I’d watch it if I were you,  _ Nathan _ .” The words held no malice behind them, though, and the two young men grinned at one another before Miller rolled his eyes back and started evaporating into a pinkish red gas.

“Someone must have slipped drugs into my coffee this morning.”

“Reyes?”

“Yeah Bee Boy?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

* * *

 

He sat very still, twiddling his thumbs, staring up at the bright, unforgiving lights that radiated in his room, which was too white, too bright. Sleeping was near impossible, and his eyes ached at the strain. What he wouldn’t do for a nice dark cave. 

Today was more interesting than the other days though, because he could hear a commotion outside of his sealed prison. Bright blue eyes slowly turned black, then snapped back to blue, and the young boy huffed at the lack of success once again. 

“Lexa! I think we’ve got one!”

Instinctively, he crouched down on one side of his room, as far away from the door as possible, but kept his eyes trained on it, waiting for any opportunity, black curling along the edge of his irises. He could hear the locks on the metallic door clicking, and with a soft  _ whoosh _ of air, it was finally open.

The girl standing in front of him was clearly no Hydra agent. 

If it wasn’t made obvious by the eagle insignia on her jacket, the warpaint and the swords painted a pretty clear picture. No Hydra member would be caught dead without their precious guns. She seemed genuinely concerned about him, and from the way her eyes widened in shock, he supposed that his age must have thrown her off guard. 

“Lexa… it’s a kid.” A second woman made her way over to the door, and he felt himself shrink further into the corner, trying to melt into himself. He would recognize her face anywhere, she was the  _ Commander _ , the  _ freak  _ that the scientists of Hydra wanted more than anyone except perhaps Daisy Johnson or Phil Coulson himself. 

“Pipsqueak!” Relief flooded through the twelve-year-old when he heard the familiar drawling voice of John Murphy. “You gonna sit there all day or are you gonna direct us to Princess?”

“How is a kid going to help us?” the first girl piped up. 

“Haven’t I told you that appearances are deceiving, Octavia?” Lexa asked, stepping aside. “Lead the way, kid.”

“M’name’s not kid,” he grumbled, stepping up slowly, “or Pipsqueak.” Here, he sent a baleful glare in John’s direction, who merely smirked at him. “It’s Aden.” He rolled his shoulders, focusing on the shadows the intruders were casting, before the black swirled over his eyes once more, and with a running start, he  _ dove  _ into them. 

The sensation of total darkness felt like coming home after a long journey away, and Aden relished in it. Here, he could creep around unseen, journey from point to point for as long as he could hold his breath, which he’d been working on for the past months Hydra had had him locked up. He surfaced for a brief moment, looking behind him at the others, who were busy fighting off uniformed agents, before taking a deep breath and diving back in, shooting through the shadows, keen eyes on the lookout for a familiar silhouette.

He found it a few hallways down. He’d recognize the shape of her shadow from anywhere, and he doubled back as soon as he found it, knowing he wouldn’t be able to rescue her on his own. 

Back where the majority of the fighting was going on, he popped back up like a demonic gopher, the black in his eyes clearing to allow blue to shine through, and a small smile crossed his face as he saw something he never thought he’d be able to see: SHIELD agents kicking Hydra’s ass. 

John looked insane, hordes of bees around him, directing the genetically enhanced bugs towards frantic agents. The red gas making its way through the room and into the throats of unsuspecting enemies was never far behind him, and Aden knew that John and Nathan worked best as a team. The girl from before, Octavia, was fighting furiously alongside a darker skinned man and someone who looked like her brother, while a tall blonde was assisting Raven Reyes, one of Hydra’s best mechanical engineers. 

But by far the most impressive sight was the Commander, in her full glory. 

Her green eyes were alight, and so was the rest of her. 

Flames licked at her resistant clothing, off of her hair, and she practically  _ glowed  _ with power, incinerating all those who dared cross her, wreaking havok. She was truly deserving of the fear that she instilled in the hearts of others. 

“Commander!” he yelled, grabbing her attention as she shot a ball of flames at an unfortunate man’s chest. “I found Clarke!” She nodded, motioning for him to lead the way, and he did as instructed, diving back in, popping up every few moments to make sure that Lexa knew where he was going. 

Before long, they made it back to the room, and Aden slid through the crack under the door with ease, popping up on the other side. 

What he saw almost made him ill. 

* * *

 

Lexa had prepared herself for a lot of things before entering this mission, but she hadn’t imagined anything even  _ close  _ to what she was currently seeing. 

The small, blonde haired, blue eyed boy,  _ Aden _ , had opened the door for her shakily, a green tinge to his cheeks, but she’d thought that was just a child reacting to something. She’d thought that she would be unaffected by what she saw. 

She was wrong. 

It was a lab of sorts. There were tables of all sorts, with dead bodies strapped down to them, home to corpses that were in varying stages of decomposition, and the entire room reeked of death and decay. Bodies were cut open, bones protruding from skin, organs in jars and blood in vials. They’d been much too late to save these people, these  _ inhumans _ , and her heart ached for all of them. Nobody deserved this.

But in the center of the room, there was life. 

A girl was submerged in a tank of water, dozens of tubes and needles injected into her skin, floating there helplessly, but what broke Lexa’s heart were that parts of the girl that were  _ out  _ of the water. 

Giant wings, which had no doubt once been magnificent and white, where bloodied and damaged. Chains cut through the feathers and into the tissue, ripping through them in ways that looked too painful for her to conceive. 

“ _ Clarke _ .” The boy, Aden, whispered her name with such reverence, such desperation, and it made Lexa ache. This girl was clearly something special to him. 

“Come on,” Lexa said gently, “help me get her out.”

Taking out all the needles and IVs was tedious business, the two of them moving as quickly as they could without causing any more damage to the girl than she’d already sustained. Halfway through the removal process, she began stirring. 

“Clarke!” Aden yelped as she began thrashing. “Clarke! It’s me, it’s Aden, I need you to calm down, okay, we’re getting you out of here.” At the sound of his voice, her struggling lessened, and Lexa nodded at him to continue talking to her to keep her calm. After a few more minutes, all the tubes except the oxygen mask were removed from her person, and then Lexa began working on the chains, removing them as tenderly as she could so not to irritate the girl’s wounds further. 

After that was done, she lifted the girl out of the water, still half-asleep in a haze of sedatives. As it turned out, the oxygen mask also doubled as a muzzle of sorts, stitched into the soft skin of Clarke’s cheeks, the metal contraption continuing down to her neck where it was clamped firmly. She wouldn’t be able to remove this without the help of Nyko, her team’s doctor. 

“We need to get her out of here and get the others,” Lexa told Aden, who was holding Clarke’s hand, eyes blazing fiercely, “there are too many Hydra agents, we can come back at a later date. Medical attention is a priority.” He nodded, swallowing a sob. 

“You go get the others,” he whispered, wrapping his hand tighter around Clarke’s, “I can get her out.” Lexa nodded, and watched sadly as the blonde boy and winged girl disappeared into the shadows.

* * *

 

The first sense she always regained was her hearing. The voices were less blurred this time, more clear. 

“ _...lost a lot of blood.” _

“ _ It’s gonna take her a while to recover.” _ While these voices sounded considerably friendlier than the ones from before, which were usually accompanied by needles and pain, she still didn't know them, and began to struggle. 

“ _ Hey, Clarke, chil au, you're going to be okay.”  _ She calmed as soon as she heard the voice of Aden, in the language that he had created. While he wasn't her brother by blood, he, as well as John and Nathan, were the closest things to family she had now. Aden was the youngest, and they'd found him after they'd been turn, running from Hydra together. His little language had been his way of coping, as well as helping Clarke with her own predicament, and they'd forged an unbreakable bond. 

But then Hydra had caught up with them. Three legacies and a little boy on the run had made an easy target. 

Her memories were still foggy, lost in a haze of pain and sedatives, little tidbits and flashes. But then, in a moment of clarity, they all came rushing back. 

She could feel her body convulsing, struggling against the table she’d been laid on, could hear Aden trying to calm her down, but the memories were too much. Cruel faces swam past her face, jeering and mean, taking pleasure in trying to pick her apart to see how she ticked. But the face that stood out the most was the face of the one person she thought she’d never have to worry about. Her mother. But Abby Griffin wasn’t the saint that she’d made her daughter think she was. No, quite the contrary, it was  _ Abby Griffin  _ who got her husband killed, and the one who betrayed her own daughter to the clutches of people she  _ knew  _ would torture her. 

And she had helped. 

Abby had helped. 

Clarke felt tears running down her face, could hear the sobs wrenching themselves from her body, but then there were strong hands holding her arms so that she couldn’t hurt herself, and she blinked rapidly a few times before she could finally,  _ finally  _ see. 

The first coherent thought that passed through her mind was that the girl looming over her was a goddess of some sorts sent to finally end Clarke’s suffering. Her eyes were green, rich and deep, a deep expansive forest that someone could easily get lost in, and genuine concern was shining from them. Clarke wondered how someone she didn’t even know could feel so strongly for her already. And then there was her hair. Soft brown tresses cascaded over the girl’s shoulder like a waterfall, twisting ever-so-slightly. The artist within Clarke yearned to draw her, but her mind was still addled by medication, and everything  _ hurt _ , so she just stared, blue eyes wide. 

Aden was hovering next to her, looking as though he might fall over. The dark bags under his eyes made him look like a raccoon, but the smile that stretched across his face when Clarke squeezed his hand was worth a million deaths, because he was alive and happy and  _ safe _ and that was all anyone could ask for. 

He took it upon himself to answer Clarke’s silent questions.

“We were rescued,” he told her quietly, “by SHIELD.” Clarke’s eyes widened even further and he chuckled. “That was my reaction, too. Lexa’s an inhuman, too, she led the team to get us. She saved you, Clarke.” Blue eyes snapped back to meet dark green ones, and Lexa smiled somewhat awkwardly, removing her hands from Clarke’s arms, confident that the girl wouldn’t harm herself. “ _ Leksa laik heda _ .” 

So this was the legendary Commander. 

Clarke thought she would have been taller. 

“John and Nathan made it out, too,” Aden continued, and Clarke felt herself relax further into the soft bed beneath her, wings wrapped around her like a cocoon, “they’d be in here with you, but they needed medical attention of their own. Nathan has a few broken ribs, but John took most of the beatings. He’s got too much of a mouth on him for his own good, was always angering the guards.” That sounded like John. The prickly young man had always had a mouth on him, his bark far rougher than his bite.

“We’re safe here, Clarke,” Aden reassured, “we’re finally safe.”

Clarke wasn’t so sure of that. 

* * *

 

Recovery was a slow process. 

Aden spent his time popping into all three recovery rooms, as well as exploring the large aircraft that the SHIELD members called the Ark. As the only member of his makeshift family who had escaped from Hydra relatively unharmed—as they couldn’t get close to him without casting a shadow—it was his job to investigate those who had saved him and judge whether or not they were trustworthy. 

Marcus Kane was hiding something, that much Aden was sure of. He was too kind, but Aden could feel his lingering gaze, and knew that the man had some sort of ulterior motive. He wasn’t sure what it was yet, but he knew it was there, so Aden tended to keep his distance from the older man, who acted as a father figure to his team. 

Aden isn’t quite sure what to make of Raven Reyes.

He knew that the girl had worked for Hydra, had heard her loud voice on many occasions when he’d been locked up, usually complaining about someone named Wick, or grumbling about a man named Sinclair. She was even louder in person, with an explosive personality to match her talent for making things go up in flames. She ruffled his hair and called him kiddo, which annoyed him to no end, but in an endearing sort of way. Her questions never seemed to end, always asking how his powers worked, to which Aden would shrug his shoulders and grimace, because not even he knew. In return, he asked about her brace, and the many projects she’d been apart of in Hydra. He’d loved science while in school, so it was nice to talk to someone about it. 

Monty and Jasper were amazing, Aden decided early on. Jasper was just as eccentric as Raven was, so the two of them together was a recipe for disaster. The chemist was almost always eating, and was more than willing to share his chocolate cake with Aden, who immediately decided Jasper was going to be his new best friend. Anyone who gave him chocolate cake was trustworthy. Monty and Jasper worked in perfect tandem together, each knowing exactly what the other needed regardless of the task. The korean scientist was perhaps the most brilliant person Aden had ever had the pleasure of meeting, but he was also the kindest. There was something about him that just made him lovable, and Aden always felt safe in his presence. 

Lincoln, though he looked intimidating, was a gentle giant, and Aden knew that he and Clarke would get along famously, as the large man was an artist with a bleeding heart, and could match Clarke in talent. Bellamy, Aden was unsure about. He joked around a lot, but there was something shifty about him that the blonde boy couldn’t quite trust, so he kept him at an arm’s length.

Anya, quite frankly, scared the shit out of Aden, as did Octavia. 

The two women were warriors to the core, and radiated power and authority. Watching the two of them spar was truly fantastic, and Aden found himself itching to join them. It is Lexa who finds him spying on their sparring and beckons the hesitant boy into the room with them. 

“Octavia,” Lexa said softly, “why don’t you test and see how competent Aden is at fighting.” Octavia seems worried about fighting someone so young, which makes Aden grin inwardly, but agrees anyways.

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” she assures, “I’ll go easy on you.” Aden can’t help but smirk, a habit that he’d picked up from John early on in their misadventures together. 

From an early age, Aden’s parents had enlisted him in all sorts of defense classes, because they were paranoid about the changing world around them. Fencing, krav maga, karate, mixed martial arts, you name it, Aden was in it at one point or another. 

Octavia was in for a treat. 

The two of them were armed with quarterstaffs, and he dropped into a crouch, testing the waters by circling the older girl, who was grinning. She moved to hit him, but yelped as her target disappeared, melting into the shadows, her momentum throwing her forward. Aden reappeared for a brief moment behind her, hitting her quickly before once more slinking into the shadows. 

“So that’s how you want to play?” Octavia laughed with a grin. “Let’s play kid.”

It becomes a game of cat-and-mouse, Aden popping up like a gopher and swinging, but Octavia becomes adept at guessing where he’ll pop up, and matches all of his blows. At the end of the session, they’re both covered by a light layer of sweat, but Aden is grinning and the three gathered are looking at him proudly. 

“We’ll make a warrior out of you get, kiddo.”

“Good job, Aden.”

Nathan recovers first, eager to get out of bed and stretch his legs. He hangs around Monty and Jasper a lot, and Aden knows it’s because Monty has caught his eye. Raven, too, catches onto this, and takes it upon herself to do a little digging. 

“Monty, do you like guys or gals?”

“I like science.”

“But, like, what gender are you romantically or sexually attracted too.”

“If physics had a was a person I would write them sonnets.”

“But Monty—”

“— _ science _ .” Raven gives up trying to ask after that, and Nathan easily settles for being Monty’s friend, because he’s lovable either way. 

The day John is finally able to walk out of his room is the day that Raven starts looking over her shoulder every five seconds. 

Aden doesn’t understand how this woman, Raven ‘ _ I can make it go boom’  _ Reyes, who has survived explosions, getting shot, and deals with inhumans on a daily basis, is so terrified of the friendly bee. John thinks it’s the funniest thing on the entire planet. 

Because curiosity always gets the better of him, Aden voices his question. 

“Why are you so scared of bees?” They’re playing chess in the lounge area, and Octavia perks up from her spot on the couch, book forgotten. 

“I’d like to hear this,” she said with a grin, “why the badass supreme is scared of bees.” Raven shoots a baleful glare in her direction, doing her best to ignore the smirk that she  _ knows  _ is being aimed at her from Anya, and turns back to Aden. 

“My mother didn’t imprint a lot of beneficial life lessons upon me,” she explains, “but there are two of them that will stick with me forever. Number one, always fear the  _ chancla _ , no matter how old you are, you’re never safe. Number two, if you see a bee, get the hell away because they are the spawn of Satan, the harbingers of death and destruction.”

Octavia is laughing her ass off at this point, and she manages to wheeze out, “Raven they pollinate  _ flowers _ .”

“DEATH AND DESTRUCTION.”

And then,  _ finally _ , Clarke is well enough to leave the medical ward. 

She tucks her wings protectively into herself, keeping them away from the others, because she remembers vividly what the last group of people had done to her, still bears the marks of their evils on her skin. 

While she still refuses to talk to anyone except Aden in their made-up language, she spends an awful amount of time with Lexa, who took a special interest in her recovery. 

Bellamy flirts with her all the time, which earns him the hostility of John and Nathan especially, who shoot him warning glances and glares whenever he approaches the skittish blonde girl. According to him, because Clarke’s never told him to stop, he has the right to continue flirting with her, until one day, she finally snaps. 

They’re in the middle of the communal living area, and he’s trying to put the moves on her, and Aden is the first to realize that Clarke’s patience is wavering. They’re all talking to one another, gathered in the same room for once, and Clarke explodes. 

“SHUT UP.” And suddenly everyone finds their mouths wrenched shut, the words dying in their throats, unable to continue speaking. 

It is then that Lexa realizes why Hydra had been so obsessed with finding out how Clarke’s powers worked, because she could control people with just her voice, and that sort of power would be invaluable to an organization such as Hydra. 

Bellamy apologizes, and Clarke forgives him, because that’s the sort of person she is, but the others don’t forget. 

Lexa takes it upon herself to try and help Clarke control her powers, so she can talk without fear of people taking her words too literally, and the blonde warms up to her quickly. 

“It was extremely difficult the first month or so,” Clarke confesses, “I had to come up with different ways to express my anger, especially curse words, because if I told someone to go float themselves, they’d actually do it.” Lexa’s mind is supplied with the image of an irate Clarke telling Murphy to go fuck himself, and then the horrified look of the blonde when she realized that he was actually moving to do so. 

In-between missions, the two of them are almost always together, just enjoying one another’s presence, and Nyko is ecstatic to have another doctor with him, someone to help in the medical wing, which is always busy what with how competitive the team are. 

Clarke isn’t sure when she begins thinking of the team as  _ her  _ team, but it becomes as such. Now, she can’t imagine going a day without Anya’s dry humor, Monty’s soft smiles, the harsh sound of Octavia and Bellamy bickering while Lincoln tries to calm them down, or the sound of Raven and Jasper blowing something up in their lab. 

But she and Lexa are closer than she thought they would be. 

The first time it happens is right after Lexa comes back for a particularly dangerous mission against a rogue inhuman, Clarke fretting over the state of her health, as she’s covered in bruises and cuts when she returns. 

“I’m just doing whatever it takes to survive in this world, Clarke.”

“Maybe life should be about more than just surviving.” Clarke’s voice is filled with such emotion, such conviction, and Lexa finds herself melting. “Don’t we deserve better than that?”

“Maybe we do.”

And then they are kissing, and for the first time in a long time, Clarke feels at home, and she melts into Lexa’s strong embrace, her wings unfurling and wrapping around the other girl, pulling her as close as possible, the two of them finding strength in one another. 

After that, the kisses are often and eager, some feather-light and some fiery and passionate, and Clarke doesn’t know which kind are her favorite. She loves all of them, because they remind her of the good in the world that had turned its back on her. She has her new family now, and she has Lexa, and that’s all that really matters. 

And then comes the day to take down the Mountain. 

* * *

 

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to.” Lexa’s eyes, so green and layered, are shining with concern. 

“I have to,” Clarke grinds out stubbornly. She isn’t a fighter, but she has to do this. She has to face her fears, her nightmare, in order to truly move forward with her life. 

“You aren’t alone, Princess,” John whispers, and she swallows harshly and offers him a tentative smile, which he returns, “we’re in this together.”

“Let’s give them hell,” Raven says with a devious grin, handing Clarke the explosives she’d made specifically for this day. Clarke unfurls her wings, allowing the feathers to stretch to their full extent, the soft breeze running through them feeling absolutely heavenly. Before she can take off, Lexa is in front of her, cupping her face gently with her calloused hands and pressing a kiss to Clarke’s lips. 

“See you in a few.”

“ _ Mebi oso na hit choda op nodotaim. _ ”  _ May we meet again _ . 

And then Clarke is flying, and there is nothing quite as liberating as the feel of the wind around her and soaring weightlessly through the sky. She twists easily out of the way of bullets with the grace of a gymnast, her training with Lexa paying off, and hurls Raven’s projectile bombs at the gunmen near the top of the mountain, wiping them out before making her descent to the top, where she knows Dante Wallace is waiting. 

It is a bloodbath, but the Hydra agents are no match for angry inhumans, and they’re too preoccupied with fighting to notice Aden and Raven slip underground, positioning explosives around the support structure of the mountain. They’d planned it perfectly. 

Today, Mt. Weather would fall. 

“Drop your weapons, Wallace,” Clarke says coolly as she enters the room, and the old man sighs as he is forced to do so, his eyes calculating. 

“You won’t kill me, Miss Griffin, I know you.”

“You don’t know me at all,” Clarke responds sharply.

“No, but she does.” And Clarke is eye-to-eye with her mother, who is being held by a smirking Cage Wallace and Carl Emerson, guns pointed at her temples. “And they can’t hear you.”

“They don’t need to,” Clarke responds, and before anyone has the time to react, she’s taken two precise shots, and Carl and Cage crumple to the ground, leaving a horrified looking Abby standing alone.

“Lock yourself in your office and don’t leave,” Clarke growls harshly, before she’s taking her mother and soaring back out of the mountain and to the rendezvous point. She understands why Kane has always been so sure of Abby’s loyalties when the older woman rushes to embrace him, and turns her blue eyes to Lexa as the brunette approaches her. 

“Let’s hope your plan works, Reyes,” Anya grumbles, and Raven smirks at her, planting a soft kiss to the stoic woman’s cheek. 

“All this time and you’re still doubting me, Pine? Poor form.”

“Well, I mean, you  _ are  _ scared of bees,” John teases, and the look Raven sends him is positively murderous. 

“Enough fighting,” Kane’s voice reaches all of them as he beckons them inside of the aircraft, “let’s go home.” 

It’s the biggest explosion Clarke has ever seen, and the force of it shakes the Ark even though they’ve cleared quite the distance, and Raven is practically beaming, and the entire team is celebrating, but all Clarke cares about are the warm arms that have wrapped around her waist, and the breath that tickled her ear, and she knew that there was no safer place than right here, in the arms of the woman she loved. 

**Author's Note:**

> Ok but literally someone being able to control bees is my actual worst nightmare. Like, I can appreciate bees and what they do for the environment from a distance, but once you've been chased by a bunch of them you're gonna be wary of the little buzzing fuckers. Raven's attitude on the subject really resonates with me on a spiritual level. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! As always, comments/kudos are greatly appreciated, come hang out on tumblr, [hedaclexa](http://www.hedaclexa.tumblr.com).


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